Apparently female rape survivors 'need' mixed sex groups

Oh, and yes, I did miss a sentence... happened when I went back to make it bold. Apologies..

23 clients were asked, referred to as 'cis', 33 clients in all - 10 of whom were transwomen ffs!

I am a female survivor and I wouldn’t care if a transwoman joined a women-only support group.

I'm sorry you suffered this.

Do you think that women who do care should have their suffering added to because you don't care?

Do you think that women should feel unable to access the services they desperately need because you don't care?

Need?

Oh they can fuck right off. Right off.

Yes. I’m just challenging the narrative on here that the centre “never asked female survivors” when they did ask them and the narrative that all female survivors don’t want TW in women-only support groups I don’t care, and apparently I’m not the only one who doesn’t care, at least at the one centre the research was done the majority of female survivors did not care. So perhaps more research should be done? Instead of assuming all female survivors think alike?

THAT is not research!

43 members of staff, 23 clients were asked - 10 of whom were transwomen ffs!

THAT is propaganda written to support the shit Sarah is currently experiencing.

We asked all of our clients.

Women wanted female groups
Men wanted male groups
Both were open to the idea of mixed sex groups as a choice, an alternative usually later, as an additional therapy session.
Our trans clients got to the mixed sex sessions and/or 1-2-1 sessions. That is both transmen and transwomen

Even those who said, as you did @Discovereads "I wouldn’t care if a transwoman joined a women-only support group." stated unequivocally that their preference should not become policy if even one woman said no

Just listened to that, thank you. I don't see how any sane empathetic person could disagree with what 'Sarah' said. Thank you to her for standing up for what is right and shame on Brighton Survivors Network for their mysoginistic policies.

Can’t you sympathise with women traumatised by men. Would it kill then to out that theory to the test with women only sessions (or would they not want to test this for some reason?).

c** is a slur.

I am a female survivor and I wouldn’t care if a transwoman joined a women-only support group.

What about the women who do care? Women like Sarah who find it traumatic to attend sessions with males. Should they be excluded in order to include men who want to be women?

At least one of those reduced our funding because we did NOT include transwomen in our female centre. The national one! We aren't diverse enough in our client base - clarified in a follow up, in writing!, as we don't include men or transwomen. We are a rape crisis centre, built by, run by and for women.

So for the last five years we have to give financial support to the male centre we also helped set up, but had been totally separate from as that is what the staff and client base felt was best.

Last month, our latest application, we got that funding back, no word of apology, just suddenly the full amount was sent, as it used to be. So something has changed.

And yes, we will continue to support the male centre. But we may do it differently, to re-build that separation, the distance staff and clients wanted.

That's nice.

Do you think the women who do care should be entitled to appropriate support?

Of course they haven't actually asked female survivors.

If you read their letter, they have asked female survivors. They quoted research:
“Most cis service users said they were happy for transwomen to use their service, and also that they would welcome transwomen joining their women-only groups. They clearly differentiated between the prospect of cis men joining their group (who not not be welcome) and transwomen joining.”

Pain R, Cygnus Supprt and O’Neil S.(2021) “One of the Lasses”. Trans Inclusion and Safety in Abuse Support Services. Newcastle University. Newcastle upon Tyne.

I am a female survivor and I wouldn’t care if a transwoman joined a women-only support group.

flopis I’m not sure that the BBC article makes it crystal clear that that the survivor included was asking for just one session out of many sessions to be transwomen free That is, it didn’t seem wholly clear in the article that there was also TW only group offered to service users.

It’s only because of reading Sarah’s previous posts that I was aware. Otherwise IMO the article doesn’t spell it out that there were men only and TW only groups offered to service users in addition to a women’s group that included TW.

Though if SN truly believes TWAW there would be no TW only group would there? Just a W group.

And a rape centre talking utter 🏀

I'm listening now.

Shock horror - a woman talking some sense!

R4 NOW

their website says

"surviviors network is a feminist organisation"

they are funded by

"We deliver services funded by Brighton and Hove and East Sussex local authorities, Children in Need, The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, Brighton and Hove Third Sector Investment Partnership, NHS, Ministry of Justice, Lloyds Bank Foundation, Sussex Community Foundation, The National Lottery and Diocese of Chichester and we thank them all for recognising the enormous impact of our work and for working with us to deliver high quality services to survivors."

i wonder if those organisations realise that the services they offer are so skewed and that actually they are not abiding by the equalities act.

hell mend (it’s a Scottish expression, no threats of violence - like karma) every individual and organisation who has worked to remove womens safe spaces. We won’t forget them.

Seems activists from this lobby have been extremely effective in seeking out organisations that provide services to women to explicitly change policies from the inside eg Edinburgh Rape Centre. Wouldn’t be hugely surprising to find the same in SN?

What this proves is that once any organisation gets into the grip of this lobby or worse is staffed by activists from it, it should not be permitted to provide services for females

Glad to hear the case covered on today. I liked that they gave the defence that Transwomen are women. I see sprayed cornflakes at breakfast tables.

Peak breakfast listening.

just listened - short but clear. I checked Network survivors website and their policies - and their equalities policy is factually incorrect, surpise, surpise, and has gender as a protected characteristic not sex.

so according to them they don't have to prioritise sex - only gender

It’s utterly ridiculous to allow self ID, to the extent where they don’t even bother to exclude an obviously male person, in normal clothes for a man, from a women’s group. The women in that group presumably chose a women-only group for a reason.

Bad enough if there’s an obviously male person who’s made an effort, but the case as you describe it is so clearly wrong that I find it astonishing anyone working in this arena can even bring themselves to try to defend it.

I have to wonder whether this is like the case in Scotland, where there’s a male person high up in the organisation. Either that, or the women running it went into it for all the wrong reasons and actually enjoy inflicting pain. No woman with an ounce of empathy for her fellow women would inflict this on other rape victims.

God. TWAW, deal with it! I doubt that did them any good, hearing that was weird. A woman said out loud "Transwomen are women... we told her that before she came"

And the world shuddered. Hearing it said, by a woman, was quite different from reading it.

Thanks, I must have slid past it. Off to see how they did...

It was on at 7.07. Only a short mention at the end of the news.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_fourfm

What I like about this article is it’s very clear that that the survivor included was asking for just one session out of many sessions to be transwomen free. I suspect the reason that wasn’t giving is because many/most women would have only wanted to attend the penis free group.